Ritual Reportage

Thursday, July 14, 2005

No. 64

Kennet is our Dj for July he chooses Poetry in Motion by Bobby Vinton Kenneth selected ritual No. 64: Go to the lighthouse and bring a stuffed moose head, make plastic antlers as the sun goes down-Think of Esther Williams

G Gilberts are interested in cliches; how do you suppose a cliché...as a painting of a sunset and a moose can be a reference for this phenomena?

K I know I group of artists that tried by survey to find out what was the most wanted painting in America, see Arthur Dantor yes there is a link to the artists Komar and Melamid where I saw this replica of the most wanted painting; A deer standing grassing by a water maybe a couple of deers in the afternoon or evening sun. The artists surveyed what colours people prefferd, how much blue should there be in a painting, what kind of things object or motifs would you like.etc

G This is what I find on the web when looking it up: ”In the last chapter of After the End of Art, Dando suggests that the message must be a kind of comedy or play, which does not take itself too seriously. "The true heroes of the post-historical period are the artists who are masters of every style without having a pianterly style at all..." (AEA p. 217). As examples, he cites the Russian artists Komar and Melamid, who in a work commisioned by The Nation magazine first surveyed the USA to see what people wanted most and least in a painting, and then produced what they claim are the most and least wanted paintings. They have since repeated the process for several other countries;

I am gonna put the link in so our blog readers can have a look:The results may be viewed at

K The work, is not the paintings themselves, but the play of ideas involved in making them

G The play of ideas is what interests us too, whats with the nostalgic song you chose ?

K poetry in motion, speaking about cliches its very sentimental, Bobby is mouning he does the falsetto its almost sadistic to go into that mood as he does with similar songs as mr lonely. He strengthern and highlight the sad songs, oh but I do like the direct access this mucic gives, somethimes that’s the beauty with cliches, when it’s a cliché I can choose to leave it when I want to, when you have the ironic distance

Live Reportage

Every second Thursday of the month we will be sending a three minute film to this blogg. People we meet will be given a list of rituals from which they choose one to perform.
We hope to create a sense of fictional continuity.

What interests
us about rituals is the opportunity for implicit multiple meanings, their 'ungrammaticalness'
and as a form of response.

GilbertandGrape

How we use the word ritual

We see ritual as
being a set of prescribed rules:
A specific place, which can be imaginary
Action that can be arbitrary
Context that can be immersed in a certain stillness/mood.

The ruling is public,
clear and social, the meaning may be or it may be indeterminate, private and
individual. Everyday actions like brushing teeth, wearing shoes, cooking a meal
can become the action in a ritual. By naming these actions in our rituals we
hope to bring attention to a connection that can be made regardless of place
and position or religion, but a position or notion that belong whilst moving
as an undefined.

Any type of
behaviour may be said to turn into a ritual when it is stylized or formalized,
and made repetitive in that form
(S.F Nadel 1953)

What interests
us about rituals is the opportunity for implicit multiple meanings, their ungrammatical
ness and as a form of response. We have talked about our collaboration being
something, which is a complex web of political viewpoints, and working through
performance rituals has allowed for an ambiguity of meaning and message
If we assume there must be a system to ritual or rules to organize its operation,
we might expect to recognize ungrammatical usage of the code, however
the ungrammatical is tolerated. Chaos, fragmentation, multiples, set amongst
clear set of prescribed rules describes our rituals. Prescribed rules and stylizations
are central to our work and the repetition of these even more so.